Liar

This week the first meeting of the so dubbed Kansai Independent Learners got together at a canadian owned pizza bar in Osaka. It was kind of a cool venue because there isn't many good, read western, pizza places in Osaka which boils down to slice sizes without corn toppings.

It was good fun but I ended up 45 minutes late to my own party which would have been disastrous were it not for the other more punctual organizer there to get things going. We did some preliminary stuff and while some took off others stayed around for a few drinks and it all might have gone on a bit longer than it should. One woman was perfectly nice, let's call her May, but she was quiet and I found myself trying to make her comfortable so talked with her for an hour while the others enjoyed the sound of their own voices.

But when it was time to go, half the group went on to another bar and it turned out that May and I were both headed to the same station. She remembered that I lived in Juso and she said that she was going through there herself, and here things took a turn. Again, May is a perfectly pleasant person but when figuring up the hour or so we would have to spend on the train together I panicked: I told her I was going to a friends house in Daikokocho, 20 minutes in the opposite direction. Here she may have picked up on the fib because the last trains would be running in another hour and so I offered another lie in my paranoia, volunteering that my friend was going to drive me back later.

I didn't need to keep protesting but in order to satisfy the lie I asked her if she knew how to drive and went on about how long it had been since I'd last drove and the probable differences between driving in Japan and the states. We got to the arcade and said goodnight, but then I had to walk south down to my false station and wait out at a corner for 20 minutes to ensure we wouldn't sync up somewhere down the line.

I can think of no other way to get out of those awkward, prolonged chats but wish that in each case my story were true that I wouldn't be cheating otherwise pleasant people. Lies are that though, ways of maintaining a world you wish instead of the one that is and is for others. At least I got to read my book.